The trolls who attacked Miss Rwanda 2020 contestants recently on social media provoked much public anger and disappointment. It was particularly savage after they mocked one of them for coming out about her defilement as a child. Some abusively dismissed the latter contestant’s trauma, saying she came out for sympathy to win the beauty pageant. Others, similarly without feeling, suggested defilement is too minor an issue to bring out in public. Online abuse is a global malady and has serious and long term effects. Surveys around the world show many women who have experienced online abuse say they’ve experienced lower self-esteem or loss of self-confidence as a result; have experienced stress, anxiety or panic attacks; are not able to sleep well; and, have been unable to concentrate for long periods of time. The abuse demeans and is an assault on the human dignity of the women. And, predictably, there arose a petition to make it safe for the contestants. It singles out the organisers of the pageant for not having anticipated the online abuse on its contestants. It is strident declaring that “It is the responsibility of the organization to craft and curate an environment that has a ZERO tolerance for the public humiliation of its contestants based off of (sic) prejudice.” It is right that the organisation has been called out and that they should do something about it, but “to craft and curate [a clean] environment” presents a hairy problem. This has to do with ubiquity and dynamics that drive the trolling menace. The demanded environment might be beyond the organisation’s ability or good intentions to craft. But there could be a way. First, however, there’s the problem of practicality. Many of us assume the trolls are not very clever — perhaps not even rational or morally sensitive like those that humiliated the Miss Rwanda contestants. Many see them as scum. This is what research reveals about trolls: A 2017 study conducted by Stanford and Cornell Universities shows that the anonymous people who post cruel, unpleasant and unnecessary comments could be any of us—we all have the potential to become a troll. The study concludes that the reason someone trolls is based on two factors: the person’s mood and the tone of other comments. It also finds that the mood corresponds with the time of day and day of the week when one is most likely to troll. People are most likely to post negative comments between 10 pm and 3 am on Sunday and Monday nights, and that Twitter bullying is at its most severe on Sundays between 5 pm and 8 pm. Then there the flagged posts—posts that have been marked or reported as inappropriate or abusive. The study reveals that, depending on the mood, people are more likely to produce a flagged post if one of their own comments had recently been flagged, or if they’d contributed to another discussion that included flagged posts. If the research is true in our context, it puts paid to the dimensions of the environment, including that the cruel or unpleasant comments could be by anyone of us; that we are the trolls. Unless social media is banned or we cease to have bad moods, the trolls and cyberbullies will always be plying their cruelty and unpleasantness. It seems, therefore, we are condemned to live with social media crassness. But perhaps Miss Rwanda could do something about it. If they don’t already have one, the organisation could consider hiring a public relations firm that could not only deal with their marketing and branding but have in place a social media strategy to counter the online vitriol against their contestants at every turn with humanising and informative engagements. Every contestant looks different than the other. They compete on different perceptions of beauty and personal aspirations. Not many girls go to a beauty pageant expecting to win. But it has been shown to empower them, including giving them exposure to possible opportunities the pageant may bring. Based on these, Miss Rwanda could offer a challenge. It could package the many answers to a question, and challenge one with such as this one: If one chooses to compete in a pageant, why is it someone else’s business to tell them they are wrong? The petitioners could also lend a hand. The views expressed in this article are of the author.
